


Ball Lightning

by ahappyphil



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2009, Introspection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:16:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27606830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahappyphil/pseuds/ahappyphil
Summary: Don’t get caught up in caution when love exists
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 28
Kudos: 65





	Ball Lightning

**Author's Note:**

> Partially inspired by “Shelter”- Dermot Kennedy

Dan is like a lightning storm. He came barreling into Phil’s life with little warning. Just showed up, loud and bright and sudden. Mesmerizing in a way you can’t look away from, even when your baser instincts are screaming to go hide for safety. 

And despite his lifelong love of storms, Phil does sometimes want to hide. 

It’s just...so much. He’s so much. In the best possible way. Dan is everything, every ounce of bravery and coolness and spontaneous Phil spent his life wishing came naturally to him. 

Dan says what’s on his mind. He is unapologetically open to the point it’s intimidating. It makes him feel almost like a fraud. To sit here and listen to Dan disclose it all, his secrets, his past, all the things that played an integral part in who he is, what this thing between them means. 

He feels it too, the intensity of this. He’s just not as good at saying it, but he hopes Dan can read between the ever shrinking lines, and knows how the monumental this feels for him too. 

Every day it feels like Dan chisels away at another brick in his wall built out of preservation and fear. But Dan is gentle. He’s understanding. He doesn't try to knock it all down in one blow like other people have. He doesn’t force Phil to say anything he’s not ready too. Even if they’re both keenly aware the feeling is mutual. Even if Dan’s already let it slip before with no expectation for reciprocation. 

Dan treats the trust he’s slowly earned like a treasure. He knows enough to know Phil’s been hurt before. He knows about failed attempts and heartbreaks. He’s listened patiently to stories of Phil letting himself be known only to rise from the ashes with more armor than before. There’s a fairytale in Phil’s heart, one he’s been silently yearning for since before he knew it was possible, and Dan has somehow swooped in and picked up the script without a word. 

There’s a nakedness that comes with slowly handing over his heart, piece by piece. A constant fight between the side of his brain who has ruled over most of his life, demanding to keep guarded, the other who is finding freedom in being so exposed. 

Dan has just as many scars as him, maybe in different places but the bled all the same. Still, he bared it all right away. Striped away the pretense the moment they were safe and laid his heart on the line, unbound. That’s how Dan lives his life: jump first, react later. 

Phil finds it both terrifying and utterly addicting, to watch this hurricane of a boy come through and destroy every truth he thought to be set in stone. Even if this is a passing storm, though everything in him is screaming it most certainly is not, his life will be permanently altered by Daniel Howell. 

There was a storm, a real one, the night he finally said the words. There was rain and thunder and Dan, all rejoicing as he gave up the last piece of his heart.

A flash of ball lightning sparks up the sky. Dan says it was as rare as them. Phil thinks that’s probably true.

**Author's Note:**

> Reblog [here](https://ahappydnp.tumblr.com/post/635059449255591936/ball-lightning) :)


End file.
